Baptismal Service

This morning’s service was wonderful. The church was full – there were only about three pews with no-one in them. Nick reckons there were over 100 people – SDA’s, Anglicans, Salvation Army people were there. He preached an excellent message on baptism, based on Acts 8:26-40 (the Ethiopian Eunuch). He spoke on the method (full immersion), the command to do so, the fact that people celebrate Christmas, which is nowhere in the Bible, yet fail to obey one of the Lord’s commands to be baptized. He also very pointedly spoke about the fact that on the island, there seems to be the attitude that if you’re born an Anglican, for example, you remain an Anglican whether or not you believe what they teach or not, or if you marry into it, that’s what you become, etc. There are a couple of people of differing denominations in our church who don’t take the Lord’s Supper because they have not been baptized and feel that they are not entitled to it. He said this is wrong, and that any true Christian is free to partake. All in all it was very clear, very biblical, and very courteously put across. Steve and Maureen were baptized after the message and it was lovely. The boys were very good in church, I could actually fully concentrate on Nick’s sermon, although did have to intervene every now and then. Caleb took his ABC practice book and worked in it, and Aaron had a look at another book for a while before sitting on my lap.

We spent some time yesterday afternoon decorating the church. Teddy had brought some greenery and bougainvillea flowers, and honeysuckle, and other flowers, to be put in the windowsills. It looked beautiful, although by this morning they had wilted somewhat, but was still a colourful display. Caleb was so good with helping yesterday, he put the flowers up very carefully in all the right places, and just got on with what he was doing, without needing a lot of prompting.

We went swimming again today, only getting to the pool after 4.30, I think. It had cooled down substantially but the water was still warm. Caleb and I had a lot of fun in the pool – I would throw him up in the air, or nudge him up with my foot, so that when he landed in the water his whole head was submerged. That’s the latest progress then, that he doesn’t mind going under water. It was hilarious though, he would come up spluttering and gulping and frantically wiping the water out his eyes, but smiling as soon as he opened his eyes. I kept confirming that he was still okay with it, and he was loving it. Aaron doesn’t want to be dumped in the water yet, he is happy swimming around on his own with no intervention and can now kick his feet out behind him. Yesterday Caleb nearly drowned him by hanging onto him, not realizing that half his head was under water and he really couldn’t breathe. We had a good chat with Caleb after that little incident. But don’t worry too much about it, we do keep a good eye on them.

After supper this evening (which was an odd assortment of tinned potato and bacon stir-fry – honestly, the things they sell in cans here is unbelievable – mixed with left-over fried rice and sausage mixture, and scrambled egg, and I also had half a tin of pea and ham soup which I couldn’t finish at lunch time, which was also an odd meal of tinned goodies and other leftovers), my energetic husband tackled the lawn with the garden shears. It’s quite a job cutting grass by hand, but he got almost half way. I tried as well and it’s a good workout for the shoulders and upper arms.